iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 07/07/2026

It’s taken a while to put into words what I find so distasteful about AI in type design (even — especially — the ‘boring parts’). It’s not the threat of being put out of a job. Some thoughts: mass-driver.com/article/from...

mass-driver.com

From human hands.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 04/07/2026

Dinamo (abcdinamo.com) were the first, though they still have media-specific license types (desktop, web, app, etc.) The list is getting pretty big now though! You can filter by licensing model here: typefoundry.directory

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 29/06/2026

We actually ran into this issue with the Condensed Black styles for MD System: the italics have a slightly rounder curve in places, like the /o counter, because cubic béziers can’t handle squareness, G2 continuity *and* interpolation smoothness. Fine at intended size, but I wasn’t happy about it

Screenshot of two lowercase o glyphs from MD System. On the left, the Condensed Black has a relatively high curve tension (i.e. it’s quite squarish); on the right, the Condensed Black Italic is just a little more oval.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 09/06/2026

Update: MD Thermochrome version 0.5 is out today! This update adds 19 new icons, 14 new currency symbols, and support for the Latin M character set (430+ languages). futurefonts.com/mass-driver/...

3D render of a bundle of cables. They’re a mix of black, white and reddish orange, with text printed on them in MD Thermochrome (a combination of symbols, numbers, and labels).

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 08/06/2026

Type Foundry Directory (typefoundry.directory) is one of the best resources out there for finding independent type designers & foundries. This month, not just the nameplate but the entire site is set in our latest typeface, MD UI — there’s no better specimen than a real-world use case.

Screenshot of the Type Foundry Directory, showing the name of the site in MD UI. Partly visible at the bottom are a couple of rows of the main list of type foundries.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 05/06/2026

Ah, I see — yes, it’s much harder to host the whole network (although Blacksky and a couple of others do). But on the other hand, you can host your own data from a Raspberry Pi much *more* easily than a Mastodon instance, since data ownership is decoupled from data exchange.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 04/06/2026

Good to see you here! But what do you mean by monopolist platform, exactly?

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 03/06/2026

Thank you, this is a thought I’ve been having for a long time but never managed to catch in a sentence. (See also: “we’ve taken the aesthetic of this [indigenous culture, local custom, shared identity] and turned it into a typographic commodity for Some Brand”)

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Reposted by Mass-Driver

Fontstand @fontstand.com · 12/05/2026

NEW: MD UI from @mass-driver.com is a typeface for interfacing, optimised for word- and sentence-level performance, with an appearance that doesn’t try to be neutral, but doesn’t surprise or distract. Available in three optical sizes: MD UI, MD UI XS, and MD UI XL. fontstand.com/fonts?search...

MD UI XS (top), MD UI, and MD UI XL (bottom), from Mass-Driver.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 07/05/2026

I’m grateful to Koos (www.koosbreen.com) for proactively looking for type made by LGBTQ designers based in the Netherlands, and beyond proud to have played a small role in this immensely meaningful project

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 07/05/2026

Last month was the 25 year anniversary of the legalisation of equal marriage in the Netherlands. To mark the occasion, the Dutch Central Bank and the Royal Mint together issued a limited-run €5 coin, designed by Koos Breen and set in my typeface, MD Nichrome.

Closeup photo of a silver coin balanced on fingertips. The design features a series of concentric circles, mostly cut off on the left side to form a rainbow motif, with each band engraved at a slight angle to create a gradient effect as it catches the light.

The engraved text, in all-caps MD Nichrome, reads ‘25 jaar openstelling van het huwelijk voor iedereen’ (‘25 years of marriage [being] open for everyone’), the two Os of ‘voor’ overlapped like linked rings, and the final word (‘everyone’) set apart and highlighted in the centre of the rainbow.

The same coin, tilted slightly to show the gradient effect of the ‘rainbow’ section in a different light.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 29/04/2026

My 2024–26 entries have been loosely imagined as a trilogy, set in a medieval far future. Their descriptions are all 4-line poems (in alt text).

Is there truth to the tales of the darkness,
Where the light of the Sun God can’t reach?
In the deep, are their camera-eyes watching?
Do mechanical hearts there still beat?
—
Bright red cartridge with super-condensed lettering (‘Sun God’) interrupted by an intense black-and-white sun motif.

Awake, brave Knight, for the dawn comes not:
Your duty is not done!
Take up the blade you bore in life.
Bring back to us the Sun.
—
Title lettering in a flared sans typeface (‘O Knight of Many Stars’) above a sword, surrounded by stars and decorative text in pale blue.

O Knight, uphold the oath you swore:
Your war is not yet won.
But the night is darkest just before
The rising of the sun.
—
Title lettering (‘Daybreak’) in a tight-spaced blackletter, the same shade of red as Sun God, with supporting elements in the same shade of blue as O Knight of Many Stars.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 29/04/2026

Daybreak (Part III) — Cartridge design & custom lettering for the 2026 My #Famicase Exhibition at METEOR, Tokyo (@super-meteor.bsky.social)

ockup of a cartridge for the 1980s Nintendo Famicom. The word ‘Daybreak’ appears in bright red on a black background, in a high-contrast and tightly-spaced blackletter style, surrounded by supporting text and elements in blue.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 20/04/2026

Yes, although right now it’s on request for orders of the complete family. Let me know if you’d like to test it out!

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 26/03/2026

MD UI is also available on @fontstand.com — you can use the fonts commercially from just €5/month (and after 12 months, they become yours to keep). fontstand.com/foundries/ma...

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 23/03/2026

Super nice deep-dive into MD UI here from @jectives.com, comparing it with some much more famous neo-grotesque typefaces. Thanks Curtis! www.youtube.com/live/tm6XDgz...

youtube.com

Typography News No. 41

YouTube video by Jectives

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/03/2026

First use of MD UI in the wild! And a huge shoutout to Jack for his advice and expertise on the project — he helped organise half a decade of tangled thoughts about the typeface into a clear message we could use to actually describe it

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/03/2026

Thanks for the mention! Over the years, Fonts In Use has gone from a cool website I browse on the weekends to an essential part of my design process (and *also* a cool website I browse on the weekends). It’s a privilege to be able to contribute to such genuinely excellent work.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/03/2026

In development since 2020, MD UI was designed alongside our existing release, MD IO. They’re distinct but closely related typefaces, with a shared set of vertical proportions and weights. Read more about the design process: mass-driver.com/article/md-u...

mass-driver.com

MD UI: a Typeface for Interfacing

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/03/2026

New release: MD UI. The International Typographic Style projected one step into the future. UI is a neo-grotesque tuned for maximum performance across all scales; a typeface that augments the function of a timeless form. Available today in 48 styles. mass-driver.com/typefaces/md...

A list of all 48 styles of MD UI: three optical sizes, eight weights in each, and matching italics. The typeface is a clean, slightly squarish geometric sans in the neo-grotesque style.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 14/03/2026

As another designer once told me (paraphrasing): “a Michelin-star chef might be disappointed by almost every restaurant they ever visit, but when they find the right one, they’ll enjoy it on a level you and I can’t even comprehend”

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 06/03/2026

Hey Chribbe! Great to hear you’re still using it :)

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 03/03/2026

Have you used any of our fonts in a live project? If you’re able to share an image or two (or better yet, submit a @fontsinuse.com post!), I’d love to hear what you worked on, and potentially feature it on the next version of our website

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 03/03/2026

Congrats on the release! Incredible OpenType feature names

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Reposted by Mass-Driver

Ben Fry @benfry.com · 17/02/2026

Using a great typeface is like cheating at design because your work instantly gets so much better. After years of mucking, we started using MD System in a prototype. Seeing what the tool *could* look like was a huge motivation to finally make it happen. Once we saw it, we couldn't wait to build it.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 17/01/2026

We’ve had one request for manual TT hinting in almost 6 years of business (though I realise that reflects user knowledge as well as actual need). All that said, the tooling and industry knowledge are not in a strong position, and I agree that’s a bad thing for many reasons

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 17/01/2026

TT instructing variable fonts is no harder than static fonts, but that doesn’t change that it’s slow, expensive, specialist work, which can double the filesize with no guarantee that it’ll actually improve visual quality (a lot of renderers nowadays ignore hints or don’t support all ‘flavours’)

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 17/01/2026

If I can maybe share some insight on this from the foundry side: everything we release is PS hinted (mostly auto + some manual corrections). The TT hinting needed for these extreme cases is much more complex to implement, in no small part because there’s no way to combine auto and manual input

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 16/01/2026

When you design a typeface, there’s always a feeling of “I hope someone does X with it”. For MD System, @fathom.info’s Rowboat is cooler than even my most optimistic goals:

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 12/01/2026

that’s the bsky ‘Theme’ font iirc

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 12/01/2026

Also shoutout to HAL Twins, a simultaneous (but very different!) take on the same source material :) type.hanli.eu/twins/

type.hanli.eu

HAL Typefaces

HAL Typefaces is an independent vendor for digital fonts and bespoke typographic solutions.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 12/01/2026

“I guess you can use SF if you really insist, but we actually recommend this shitty knock-off of SF by A Tech Bro”

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 06/01/2026

So your first example is correct, but if you said “the fonts will be available as of Monday” then it’s strongly suggested that Monday is when they’ll become available

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 06/01/2026

There’s an implication that [date] is when the statement becomes true, but only for future dates, not past ones “The website is online as of last week” (i.e. it’s probably still up, but last week is when I checked) doesn’t mean it went online last week, just that it *was* online last week

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 02/01/2026

As long as I don’t have to kern the result

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 02/01/2026

Update: it was actually *less* than one. High hopes for 2026!

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/12/2025

Also: we do not use AI. We have never used AI. We release about one typeface per year because craft is our highest priority, and it always will be.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/12/2025

I appreciate it! No obligation though of course, use what you think is best :)

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/12/2025

For any game developers* caught by the Monotype/Fontworks price hikes: - you can use our fonts for video games - there are no usage caps or renewal fees - unrestricted trial fonts for in-engine testing - smaller dev teams pay less. mass-driver.com *Extended Latin support, but not Japanese, sorry!

MD Nichrome, a geometric sans-serif with a strong retro flavour, syncopated proportions. It’s inspired by 70s sci-fi paperback covers, and available in 16 styles (8 weights, from a very thin to a very bold, with matching obliques).

MD Polychrome, a typeface based on magnetic ink bank numbers (and the various retro-high-tech fonts they inspired in the 60s and 70s). Available in four styles, loosely corresponding to different print sizes rather than weights.

MD IO, a monospaced typeface intended for super-legible text. It’s somewhat futuristic in appearance (but not distractingly so) with strongly textured italics. Available in 16 styles, with weights from very light to very bold.

MD Lórien, a slightly ornate serif influenced by Caslon and the 18th century European typefaces which Caslon’s fonts were derived from. It’s available in five weights, with matching italics, swash caps, ligatures, etc. etc.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 15/12/2025

Thanks Ben! It’s been a busy end to the year, looking forward to a couple of weeks off

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Reposted by Mass-Driver

Typographica @typographica.org · 12/12/2025

“I for one think it is entirely excellent that the US State Department is reverting to using a typeface designed by a committed Marxist who was imprisoned during WW1 as a conscientious objector. Bravo!” — John Hudson typedrawers.com/discussion/c...

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Reposted by Mass-Driver

Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 17/11/2025

Available now: MD Thermochrome v0.4 adds over 100 new icons to the typeface, all of which respond to weight and italic angle just like every other glyph. Legibility not guaranteed www.futurefonts.com/mass-driver/...

A handful of key glyphs (lowercase a, asterisk, ampersand, capital R, superscript 1, percent sign) from MD Thermochrome, showing the visual language of the typeface. It’s a dotmatrix-style typeface made from circles and rounded horizontal lines, which grow and shrink to form the multiple weights.

A selection of icons from the typeface, highlighted in red, interspersed with words describing them (or described by them) in white.

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 18/11/2025

This was a super interesting read, thank you so much for posting it! As a type designer I’m acutely aware of Monotype pulling this kind of trick, but never had such a detailed look at how it works

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 17/11/2025

Thanks for the kind words, and wow, what a coincidence! (It’s a great street, of course)

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Mass-Driver @mass-driver.com · 17/11/2025

It wasn’t so bad! The grid is super awkward (it’s like a 7:10 aspect with strict adjacency rules), which gives it that sudoku-like flow-state level of challenge. Better than kerning, anyway

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